Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Today I thought I'd share this great Brilliantine recipe. Brilliantine is a men's hair product used as a hair tonic to add shine. Here is a simple recipe from an old Barber's Manual (circa 1900):

For "alcohol" I used Vodka. The book doesn't give instructions, so I just poured everything into a jar and gave it a shake. It worked out well! While I haven't tried this recipe on myself, I made a batch for a friend of mine and he loves it. It doesn't have enough hold for him to use it alone, but he likes to use it in combination with a little hair gel or as an aftershave (he loves the smell). I thought it might be a bit drying, despite the glycerin, but he hasn't had any issues.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

I'm back after a month's break from blogging. I hadn't intended to take a break at all, but life got busy and something had to give,

However, I come back with (hopefully) exciting news! I decided to relaunch my YouTube channel! I haven't made videos for ages but I really missed it. I'm planning on posting two videos a week for the foreseeable future. The first video will be a quick vintage beauty tip or recipe (mainly Victorian and Edwardian), and the second will be a longer tutorial. Instead of just hair, there will be a mix of hair, makeup, beauty recipes, and testing historical hair products (including recreating a 1920's marcel curler!). I will still be blogging as well, but supplementing my posts with videos. My videos will be posted on my blog, but if you would like to subscribe to my channel as well that would be much appreciated!

So far, I've posted a channel trailer (which includes a bit of a sneak peak for upcoming videos) and one hair tutorial. A new video will be posted tomorrow, as well!